KZN blames Mazibuko

Safsa and its KwaZulu-Natal region are heading for a collision after the Copa Coca-Cola Football Stars finals were not played due to an alleged lack of funds.

The provincial finals to decide the two teams to represent KwaZulu-Natal in the national competition in Tshwane next week, were supposed to take place on Saturday.

Mzizi Gumede, the tournament's provincial coordinator, said: "We did not have our provincial finals because there is no money."

Football Stars is a national school's tournament in which 18 clubs - two from each of the nine provinces - battle it out for the national crown.

Mazwi Mkhize, Safsa deputy president who is from KZNl said: "I find it hard to believe such a global company as Cola-Cola could not have money.

"Shoes Mazibuko [Sasfa president] suggested that we use money from Milo or Danone for our Football Stars provincial finals. The KZNl finals were supposed to be played on Saturday so that we could send our provincial winners to Tshwane next week.

"I have been in soccer administration for three decades. Our learners are suffering, Shoes is not being fair by not treating all the regions as equals.

"We, as Sasfa, lost MTN, Vodacom and Mille because of our carelessness, you can't say funds allocated to Danone be used for Coca-Cola."

Mazibuko said it was untrue that there was no money for the provincial competition, adding he was surprised that KZN finals did not take place as scheduled.

"It's not true and for me this is a non-issue. All the provinces each received R100000. We explained to them that the money might reflect in their bank account after two to three days.

"We don't have money for a particular tournament, it's one account for all our competitions."